‘Acting helped fill void after politics’: Neville
Former politician Tom Neville has quickly and easily made the transition back to acting, writes Donal Lynch
WE live in an age in which politics and acting have never seemed closer. Both, the writer Sandey Fitzgerald observed, have “a showy, episodic quality”, and both run on the fuel of public feeling.
In America, politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Franken parlayed their celebrity into political power. Closer to home, Leo Varadkar peppers his speeches with references to films, and actors seem almost required to take up political causes.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that a former TD, Tom Neville, would so quickly and easily make the transition back to acting. Having failed to be returned for a second time in the recent election, the Limerick man has returned to his first love and is about to star in a new film, Everything Looks Better In The Sunshine, a quirky romantic comedy, about a traffic warden who gets hit by a bike while crossing the road, and must ‘follow his nose’ to find the girl of his dreams who hit him.
Neville says the short film, which will play at the Galway Film Fleadh, both helped him to put the disappointment of the election behind him and served as a balm for Covid angst. “We shot it last year in Limerick and I think it’s timely given what we’ve gone through,” he tells the Sunday Independent. “It’s a light ‘parallel side of life’ where everything is going to be all right. It has a fairytale, cartoon type of feel. We see so much serious dramas that come out of Ireland but this is lighter and funnier. Basing it in Limerick, a place that has had its challenges in the past, was also significant to me.”
Neville grew up in a political household. His father, Dan, was a TD for almost 20 years and a senator for nearly a decade. This experience helped soften the blow last February, he says. “I was very disappointed, I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t. But in politics, you have to accept the parameters that are there. Insecurity is part and parcel of the profession. Losing the profile didn’t bother me. I’m used to seeing that come and go. I grew up in a political household — my father was 26 years in politics between the Senate and the Dail. The phone does stop ringing though.”
Neville had an eclectic career before becoming a politician. He qualified as a teacher, but he’s also worked as a recruiter and a DJ. This ability to reinvent himself has also helped with the return to civilian life.
“I’ve been honing my craft on the acting side, I’ve turned back to my music,
I’ve gone back onto my decks — that helped me to fill a huge void after politics.
“You’re on the go morning, noon and night, but when you’re finished, all that drops. I’ve had time to invest in family and relationships, which I didn’t have so much time for that before.”
Neville is married to another actor, Fair City star Jenny Dixon. He says he first saw her on the show after he had returned from a stint in Australia and was trying to readjust to being back home by watching Irish television. “She popped up on the screen and I went ‘wow’. It was the first time I’d seen her. She was so humorous in how she played the character. We met at a film festival, Jen was presenting the style award. I asked her out in a matter of weeks and the rest is history.”
He’s excited to see people’s reaction to the new film and he says that the parallels between politics will only help his career as it goes on. “People think that politics and acting are all performance. But acting for me is all about listening, not about performing, and I love that about politics too.”
‘I asked her out and the rest is history’